Crude oil prices fell sharply during July and into early August, pressured by an abundance of supply and a strong US dollar. By early August, global benchmarks had sunk around 25% below end June levels. At the time of writing, ICE Brent was trading at around $49 /bbl while NYMEX WTI was at $43.30/bbl.
Global oil demand in 2015 is expected to grow by 1.6 mb/d, up 0.2 mb/d from our previous Report and the fastest pace in five years, as economic growth solidifies and consumers respond to lower oil prices. Persistent macro-economic strength supports above-trend growth of 1.4 mb/d in 2016.
World oil supply fell nearly 0.6 mb/d in July, mainly on lower non-OPEC output.OPEC crude production held steady near a three-year high. As lower prices and spending cuts take a toll, non-OPEC supply growth is expected to slow sharply from a 2014 record of 2.4 mb/d to 1.1 mb/d this year and then contract by 200 kb/d in 2016.
OPEC crude supply inched 15 kb/d lower in July to 31.79 mb/d as Saudi output eased and offset record high Iraqi production and increased Iranian flows. The ‘call on OPEC crude and stock change’ rises to 30.8 mb/d in 2016, up 1.4 mb/d on this year due to a stronger demand outlook and stalling non-OPEC supply growth.
OECD inventories rose counter-seasonally by 9.9 mb to hit another all-time high of 2 916 mb in June with their surplus to average levels widening to a record 210 mb. As the seasonal restocking of ‘other products’ continued apace, refined products by end-month covered 31.3 mb days of forward demand, 0.2 days above end-May.
Global refinery runs reached a record 80.6 mb/d in July, 3.2 mb/d up on a year earlier, but fissures are showing. High distillate stocks have pushed cracks in Singapore down to their lowest level since 2009 and prompted run cuts in Asia. Elsewhere, especially in the US, still-soaring gasoline cracks supported high margins and throughput.
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Courtesy of IEA, © 2015 OECD/IEA
Energy costs and oil prices are major economic influences in the global market. That’s interesting that the world oil supply was able to rebound from 1Q2015 from your market reports. Maybe this has been influential in the lower prices of gas. I’ll have to read more about energy market reports to make sure that I invest wisely in the coming year.
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Posted by Alex Trodder | February 29, 2016, 9:54 pm